Of Red Hair, Haddocks, and Black Mounts
by SpellPiper2213
Summary: This is a Mericcup fanfic. Need I say more?
1. Chapter 1 - Arrival

**The SpellPiper is in the house! Hey, guys, SP2213 here with a genderbent Mericcup story that LOGICALLY explains how Meridan (Merida) and Hicca (Hiccup) meet. Watch the plasma blasts and arrows fly in this...yeah, you've already heard stuff along those lines before, haven't you?**

**So, as it is, have fun, and may the odds be in Fate's favor, because, honestly, that's what's getting you through life. However, if you had the chance to, say, **_**change your fate**_…

**...would ye?**

Hicca's P.O.V.

It was a mark of the bad mood I was in that I barely talked to my dad during the trip to the Highlands. Sure, it was for diplomatic reasons, but I was mad for two reasons: one, because it would be only me and Toothless in a castle of potentially hostile Highlanders; and two, my dad was probably trying to find me a suitor.

Toothless hummed sadly, smelling my sadness. I scratched her on the side of the head glumly.

"What I wouldn't give to have wings," I said. "Then I could fly back to Berk."

"Hicca." Without my noticing, Gobber had come up behind me. He sat down next to me. "Ye don' have ta be so sad about leavin' Berk. Snotlout was getting' ta be a pain in the arse those last few days."

I sighed. "I don't even know if they'll be nice to me or not," I said. "I mean, I'm a Viking, and a runt at that, and I have a dragon as a friend."

Gobber chuckled. "I've been ta the Highlands once or twice, and they were always courteous. O' course, I wasn't sure if they were actually trying ta be courteous or if they were planning to poison me…"

I smiled wanly. Typical Gobber, using humor to lighten my mood.

"Anyway, I hear that the prince has a fast horse," Gobber continued. "Maybe even as fast as Toothless!"

Toothless snorted. I chuckled. "A horse, as fast as a Night Fury? I doubt it."

"Well, ye'll just have ta see, won' ye?" Gobber said, eyes twinkling with humor. "Oh, look, we're almost there!"

I looked up to see the entrance to a lake - or loch, as the Highlanders called them - fast approaching. I groaned as I realized what this meant.

"Aye, I know how ye're feelin'," Gobber said. "Dresses aren't especially meant for use by Vikings."

"Oh, no, dresses were meant for Vikings to wear," I grumbled sarcastically.

Meridan's P.O.V.

I hissed as my mother pulled a comb through a particularly unruly part of my hair. "Can ye be a little less hard with mah hair, please?" I asked.

"Ye've asked me that five times already, at least," Elinor said. "Et's just that yer hair is unruly. Just like yer father's," she tisked.

I sighed and steeled myself for the next jerk. It didn't come. I looked up at my mother, curious.

"What?" she asked. "Ah'm done."

"Ye are?" I asked, running a hand through my hair. Speak of the devil, so she was.

"Now trim yer beard," my mother said, the corners of her mouth twitching ever so slightly, eyes twinkling. "_Carefully_."

I stared at her. "Yer doin' this fer yer own pleasure now, arenae ye?"

My mother looked me in the eye and burst out laughing, covering her mouth. "Okay, maybe a wee bit. But ye really dae need tae trim yer beard, ye ken?"

I sighed, chuckling along with my mother. "Fine." After she left the room, still chuckling, I pulled out a knife and trimmed my beard a bit. Then I changed into my best clothes and went down to where my parents and triplet little sisters waited.

"Well? Shall we?" my father asked. Me and my mother both six of us went down to the docks, my mother keeping an eye on the girls at all times. Fortunately, they didn't hide away to plan how to cause mayhem. Which was a first, considering the chaos they initiated the _last_ time anyone of importance first entered Castle DunBroch.

I could see a single longship coasting down the loch towards the docks. It had a dragon head decorating the prow, and its flag depicted a black dragon curling in a circle with a red tail. I wondered what the dragon was.

"Night Fury," my mother said in an awed voice, as if she'd read my mind. Which she probably had, don't get me wrong. "Ah've heard rumors, but Ah never thought they were true."

"What rumors?" my father asked.

"That Stoick's clan had befriended dragons," Elinor responded, "and that Stoick's daughter befriended a Night Fury with half a tail."

"_Half a tail_?" I asked, incredulous. "How does the dragon fly?"

My mother, to my surprise, shrugged. "Ah dae nae ken how. Well, time will tell."

As the ship got closer, I saw a man, easily as big as my father, on the prow of the ship. He had a long red beard, and had a helmet stuck onto his head. From the glint at his side, I guessed that he had a hammer or an axe at his belt.

When the ship knocked against the dock, the man hopped off and pulled a rope to one of the mooring posts. Then, as he straightened, I got my first good look at Stoick the Vast.

For all intents and purposes, he could be my dad's younger brother. Both of them were massive, red-haired, and leaders of their respective clans. Both of them were renowned warriors and leaders. In any case, even if they weren't related, they might as well be.

"Fergus!" Stoick cried.

"Stoick!" my dad roared. The two embraced like old friends.

"How are yeh, Elinor?" Stoick asked. "You look beautiful."

My mother blushed "Ah'm very well, thank ye, Stoick," she said, curtsying.

"And yeh must be the prince, Meridan," Stoick said, looking at me with interest. "Last time I saw yeh, yeh were barely bigger than your sisters." The Viking winked at my sisters, who stared back, enraptured.

"Ah met ye?" I asked.

Stoick chuckled. "More than once. Yeh and Hicca were best friends, when the time was, before, well…" His face fell.

"Valka," my mother said knowingly. "What happened tae her?"

"Dragon attack," Stoick said. "She was protectin' Hicca from a dragon. Last I saw her, the dragon had her in its claws, flying off while Hicca and I looked on, helpless while she screamed."

Fergus patted Stoick on the back. "Et's alright, Stoick. We should nae dwell on past times."

Stoick nodded. "What's done is done, much as I wish it weren't."

"Where's Hicca?" my mother asked in an attempt to change the subject."

Stoick brightened somewhat. "She's coming. She just has to get into a dress." He chuckled. "That'll help her mood," he sighed.

A chatter of Norse reached my ears. A short-haired girl appeared over the side, apparently arguing heatedly with someone I couldn't see. With a wail of irritation, she leaped over the side of the longship. For a second, I saw the glint of something on her left foot. But it was forgotten as a dragon followed the girl.

It was about thirteen or fourteen feet long, with jet-black scales and wide wings. It had a long tail of the same color, except for the left tail fin, _which was bright red_.

Oh, gods. What was I getting myself into?

**Well, that's one chapter gone in my Mericcup fanfiction. Before people get vocal about it, THIS IS NOT RotBTD MATERIAL. Just Mericcup.**


	2. Chapter 2 - Many Meetings

**Hey, guys, what's up? SP here with some more Mericcup. Fun fact; it's been three years this July (or June, I don't exactly know, somewhere in there) since since **_**Brave**_ **came out, and five years this November since **_**How to Train Your Dragon**_ **came out, not to mention **_**Doctor Who**_ **and **_**Star Trek**_**, each of which is around half-a-century old, and **_**Harry Potter**_**, which is in its fifteenth year of official print.**

**I feel old. Very, very old.**

Hicca's P.O.V.

I was fuming. Gobber, far from offering helpful support, had whistled when he's seen me in a dress. I'd snapped something sarcastic at him, gods-know-what, before leaping off of my dad's ship, nastier-tempered than ever.

"Hicca," my dad said, "I'm not sure if you remember them, but this is King Fergus-" He indicated a man that looked extremely like him, down to the fierce blue eyes "-Queen Elinor-" A slight woman with long brown hair curtseyed "-their youngest-" Three identical girls looked up at me curiously "-and their son, Meridan." I looked at Meridan. He was tall, with frizzy red hair pulled back into a ponytail and a short goatee the color of his hair. He had a blue kilt on.

Suddenly, a memory flashed across my eyes: _A small boy, red-haired, holding onto me for dear life as outside, a Zippleback roared._ I reeled a bit in shock, and Toothless nudged me with his head to keep me steady.

"Er," Meridan said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head and looking away as he blushed as red as his hair.

I regarded him for a second before saying, "I just hope you're not still afraid of dragons."

Meridan chuckled awkwardly, grinning stupidly at me. "Ye've nae changed a bit, have ye?" Yep, same voice, albeit deeper, obviously.

"Well, I wouldn't say that…" I said, blushing a little myself. Then Toothless walked up to Meridan and sniffed him. I could hear her sniff of disdain, and she looked at me as if saying, _You knew this idiot?_

"What're you looking at?" I asked. "It's been, what, ten, eleven, years since we last saw each other! It's going to be a bit awkward!"

Toothless looked skyward and shook her head before turning away and walking up the dock like she owned it, gaining a chuckle from everyone.

I started walking up the dock after the Night Fury. Meridan slid in next to me. After a second, he said, "So, how'd ye meet the Night Fury?"

"It's...a long story," I said. "Anything interesting happen to you?"

"Well, Ah changed mah mum intae a bear…" Meridan said, blushing again. Seeing the look on my face, he smiled. "Et's a long story."

"Well, me and Toothless are going to be here for a while," I said, "so it's not like we can't tell each other our stories."

Meridan chuckled. "Et's gaeing tae be interesting, yer visit."

**I nodded. "So, how old are the triplets?"**

**So that's another chapter in this fanfic gone by. If you haven't already, ready my other fanfics! Reviews are always helpful!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Dragons

**Hi, guys! SP here with another chapter, this time dealing with the beginning of Hicca and Meridan's explanations of the past decade. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I've been working on another fanfiction, and school'd been eating up my time as well, so...**

Meridan's P.O.V.

_Mor'du, Mor'du, Mor'du, Mor'du!_

_The legend spreads from fire tae fire of the devil that we slew!_

_Mor'du, Mor'du, Mor'du, Mor'du!_

_Now the time has come for all the clans tae slaughter ye!_

The song ended with a rounding cheer and Hicca's dragon blasting the bear's head on the wall with a blast of blue fire.

The entire hall was silent, and then Hicca gave a galvanized "Toothless!", blushing furiously. Then many of the men burst out laughing, cheering the dragon. I could see Hicca's father nearly crying with laughter. Hicca was as red as my hair. Her dragon, Toothless, looked relatively surprised with the attention at first, and then basked in the adulation.

"So, how did ye find the dragon?" I asked Hicca, who was still beet-red.

Hicca puffed out her cheeks, obviously trying to let off some steam. Then, after breathing slowly and evenly for a minute or two, she opened her haunting green eyes and looked at me.

"Well, it begins and ends with how my tribe viewed me," she said. "Before I start telling you this tale, imagine me a few months younger than I am, a little shorter-"

"Less filled out," the blonde cripple said, poking his eyebrows at me. I couldn't help but turn away and laugh at what he was implying.

Hicca hissed something in Norse at the cripple, who turned back to his food with an air of smugness about him.

"Anyway…" Hicca said, pulling out a small scroll. "This is a map from about a year ago." She unfurled the map, and I saw a crude drawing of a large island with several islands around it and a cloud of fog to the northwest.

"What it et?" I asked, unable to decipher the runes of Futhark.

"This is Berk," Hiccup said, poking the large island. "It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing-to-Death." I could see her eyes unfocusing and hear her voice getting wistful, getting lost in the memories. "It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery.

"My village. In a word? Sturdy. And it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new."

"Why?" I asked.

Hicca smiled. "You'll see." She drank a bit of mead and continued.

"We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunset. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice, or mosquitoes. Us? We have…"

Toothless suddenly walked over to us, stood up on its hind legs, and screeched in my face.

Hicca's dad nodded. "Dragons," he growled in unison with Hicca.

**Cue the movie.**

**Yeah, I'll get back to this. In the meantime, have a nice time, review if you want, and don't argue with Viking logic.**

'**Cause it's usually backed up with an axe (or, in this case, a dragon). There's probably going to be**** a sequel and an editing of a certain movie about a certain talking fishbone, depending on how much I get done this summer. SpellPiper2213 out.**


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